To keep the edge up, drills were run on a schedule every month. The base personnel divvied up in three groups: invaders, civilians, and Marines. They ran various scenarios that included a Wraith incursion, Foothold operations, and Body-snatchers. Sometimes there were even costumes. The D'n'D scientists got a huge kick out of it and compared it to role-playing. The military understandably chose to call it something else.

The whole day was devoted to the games—uh, drills. One might rise and head to the cafeteria just like any day only to be kidnapped by masked soldiers and held hostage until the cessation of paint-ball 'gunfire'. Some units used the P-90 disguised Zats while others used the more traditional high impact 40 cal pellet guns that often got around padding.

During these intense orchestrated drills, one never knew who was a friendly and who was just pretending to be one. It varied from drill to drill and they hardly ever announced if it was strictly a Body-snatcher or a Foothold. They felt free to combine any in various configurations.

Once, the whole science division went rogue and set off the self-destruct and had control of the vents and bulkheads. Each unit of Marines had to fend off the others they ran into while capturing the wandering scientists who fed them real or false clues as to how to disarm the city and regain control. This helped the Marines practice their knowledge of system controls and manual overrides while the scientists figured out ways to herd or block off any movement in the city.

It was an all around educational experience.

This month was no exception.

The day started off with a Foothold situation at 0400. The breach was through the gateroom, as usual, but with a secondary breach by sea through which friendlies were body-snatched. The friendlies had to be taken alive and largely unharmed while 'lethal' force was authorized for the invaders.

From there, the city quarantine and self-destruct went off simultaneously. Individual teams had to make it across the city to their own objectives. Half were responsible for the actual evacuation of all civilian bodies to the mainland and the other half had to stop the count down one way or another. Once the evac-ed scientists made it to the mainland they could sit down to lunch while the pilots flew simulated dogfights and aerial objectives.

Lennah, having team status, stayed in the city with SGA-1 and the Marines. After taking another tact-team captive and disarming impending doom, they were split up. It was a research move by Lennah's guess. The egghead biologists and anthropologists were studying the team dynamic when put on opposition. They'd be watching by city-wide sensors and listening in on their coms.

She wasn't given an objective yet so she popped a squat in the hall and chowed on a powerbar. Sheppard stopped by and informed her of a viral exposure that had Teyla and Ronon acting irrational. But instead of teaming up to hunt the pair down, he left her to conduct her own search of the area Dex was last spotted.

Good goin', Pops. She thought. Let's mix business and pleasure. While Lennah philosophized on which was business and which was pleasure and for whom, she made her way through the area where Dex was supposed to be in a quadrant-by-quadrant search.

It was an industrial district, as only the Ancients would know. The wide hallways were two to three stories high to facilitate the movement of massive objects between labs. She couldn't scale the walls in a pinch. The slightest noise was magnified. You'd think that the Ancients would have used noise nullifiers in their building plans to reduce hearing loss. Perhaps that, like everything the Ancients did, was more complicated than necessary.

She didn't gain much ground in the first half hour and moved to a more organic search based on her understanding of Ronon and the limited information on the virus Shep had given her. It had been full of medical jargon and, thus, was a clue.

It was a parasitic infestation that fed on brain chemistry and had a bipolar effect on the body. Increased hormonal production that simultaneously triggered the cornucopia response of 'fight or flight' as well as causing the mind to flip to various extremes. Colare gathered from this that, along with the sharpened senses and increased strength/stamina associated with epinephrine, the afflicted would also be incapable of complete or rational thought. As if bringing down the beast wasn't hard enough already.

Stinkin' Shep took the easier one. Wuss.

Ronon was a Runner who was used to sticking to the shadows. Odds are she wouldn't see him sneaking up behind her. It wasn't likely that Ronon was under any actual viral or drug influence but she had to treat it as though he was. He probably had a number of 'symptoms' to display, a series of stages to jump through leading up to attack. If she could keep him busy... stow a weapon somewhere on her person, play into whatever staged delusion he would perform and convince him of her confederacy.

It could work. At the least, she'd be in active negotiations, which was better than waiting hours for a sniping opportunity. Doing nothing was equal to a failure to perform. It was better to give a good attempt and fail than to do nothing and fail.

She hid her heaviest artillery behind a vent panel: the P-90 tazer, flash-booms, M-60 noisemakers used as fake grenades… rubber chicken... She kept only a blade, the 40 cal zat, and her vest as it was kind of chilly in this part of town. They were on the 10th floor in the cool open air.

Colare moved through the area, calling his name in a cavalier manner. She already felt like she was being watched.

"Hey, Ro!" She called. God, I feel like an idiot. Lennah put in a headphone and drowned out the clammy silence. She danced a quick step into 'chaines' turns to break the mood. "Ro! Come on!"

It was eerie, waiting for the inevitable pounce. Dex would come up behind her and scare the crap out of her. It was deathly still and cool in this area. This was right out of an X-files episode: coaxing the apparently not-so-normal person out of the shadows only to be chopped to bits and digested.

"Ro?" Her voice wavered and she cleared her throat. "We both know how this is gonna go. You jump out, I scream. Can we get it over now?"

There was a noise down one of the halls and she fought her desire to run away from it. "Ronon?" A few yards down a connecting hallway, she found a powerbar, which she stuffed in her pocket. He'd probably thrown it to lead her. "Come on, buddy."

She looked down both ends of the long hallway. One ended at a junction with another hall. The other faded into darkness beyond a flickering light.

God, that's creepy. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up and her skin crawled as it did when someone was watching her. Lennah descended into terror. She fought to control her breathing for a moment then turned and ran right into Dex.

Just an arm around her and she was fine again. She felt like a child but she was embarrassed as only an adult would be. It was the first time they'd been alone since that night.

"I'm okay. I know I'm okay and I'm with you but I can't stop shaking."

"Or talking."

"I babble when stuff happens. It's just a psychological over-compensation for not being in control of my surroundings. It's just—I just, you know, and there's no end in sight. We could be here all night with me just rattling off."

Talking stopped when he kissed her. "I don't mind being here all night."

She chuckled and rested her head on his shoulder. Any minute he was going to be insanely irate. And that would be hot, too.

But he'd just be acting. Playing a role he was assigned just as she was. Why not make it worthwhile?

"I feel so safe with you." There was no humor in her confession. She couldn't even look him in the eye when she said it. "And it scares me."

"Why?"

"Because what we want may not always turn out to really be what we want."

He said nothing for a while but he wouldn't allow her to step away either.

"Do you want me?"

Her only reply was to look away. He pulled her face back to him.

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes."

"Then you have nothing to worry about."

The simplicity of his logic threw her off for a moment. "Right. Well, the grades on these drills for one." She shrugged and tried not to think about how she felt against him.

"Oh, right." He smiled. "We're being graded for performance." He left a slow trail of kisses down her jaw. There was a flutter somewhere between her heart being in her stomach and in her throat.

"Not that kind of performance." But the even tone she'd held before lowered to a whisper.

"Who's to say?" Ro leaned back and smiled at her. When she failed to respond, he leaned in again and nuzzled her ear.

Lennah shivered as a warm hand slid around her waist and up her back. "This is me trusting you."

"It's all part of the plan." His breath was warm on her face and she could close her eyes and make everything else disappear. He pulled her closer and held her tightly. There was that constricting feeling in her chest though nothing was wrong with her heart.

"Does the plan involve me breathing?" Her hands moved over him but he was immovable and completely solid as though a statue had formed.

"Some of the time."

"That doesn't bode well for my brain cells."

He chuckled and hoisted her up, wedging her between himself and the wall.

This was about the time Lennah discovered he'd relieved her of her firearm. Two can play at that. She hooked her arms under his and laid her head on his chest. The relieved sigh that heaved just helped the theatrics she told herself. Colare stroked his back under that leather trench coat. Once or twice. In a slow way, she looked up at him and smiled.

"Bang. Bang." She smirked as she pressed the barrel of his own gun into his side.

Ronon grinned. "Bang. Bang." He waved her own at her.

Lennah scoffed. "Can't you ever lose?" She sighed, head hitting the wall. Ronon planted his lips on her exposed neck.

"I tried that once… I wasn't good at it… so we called it a draw..."

Lennah raised an eyebrow. Her head felt too heavy to move. "Fine. I'll give you that one. I don't want a rematch."

Ronon wrapped a huge hand around her wrist and pointed the gun elsewhere. "It was a good try." No longer trusting her, he backed away with both weapons.

That only gave her room to move. She slammed his chest with her feet as she bounced off the wall. There was a massive reverberating thud as he hit the floor. She landed on top and smiled down at him.

"You may have to put me down." She smiled."I won't take no for an answer."

Ro flipped the pin and held her down as he twisted to reach for a restraint. Her knife at his neck impeded him.

She smiled at his surprise. "Oh, of course."

He nodded. "Of course." He smiled huge and she blinked. She watched his heated eyes move over her face and she looked away. He took her knife. "My round."

She groaned. "But not the war." She fought the impulse to wrap her legs around him. "Take me in. I'm cold, hungry, and tired."

"Me too." He said. "I've been waiting out here for almost an hour for Sheppard to give me another objective."

"He didn't...?" Lennah started then rolled her eyes in understanding. "He told me you and Teyla went crazy."

"And he wanted you to bring me in while he went after Teyla?" Ronon smiled. "Of course."

Losing never felt so good. She'd forced him to restrain her but he plopped his coat over her shoulders. It's length dragged but it was cozy in there. After a stressful day, it was nice to be swathed in soft leather that smelled like him.

It was nicer when he stole a kiss or two. And the fact that her hands were tied behind her back lent an air of danger Lennah found... interesting.

He led her in to the Gateroom with his hand at the back of her neck.

Sheppard fought a smile and waved them aside. The games were done for the day and everyone was filing into Mess. The Jumpers were en route.

Ro took his time unbuttoning his jacket and cutting the zip-tie.

The 'Observer' watched from a distance, along with everyone else apparently.

The room was flooded with people, coming and going as they checked in final results and headed to the armory to check their weapons. But they were unaware, oblivious to the onlookers getting their kicks off it. His hand brushed her hair out of her face. Her locked gaze. The alien even wrapped his arms around her to cut the zip-tie. Damned if he didn't maximize the possibilities there. He kissed her and all chatter stopped.

It would have been pretty damn hot, if it weren't disgusting.

The scientists said we were all the same. They said that the address of the planets didn't matter, the genetic material all originated from the same source and 'we were all the same'. They said the same thing about our aquatic cousin, the purple sea sponge. You don't see anybody trying to romance one of those. But that could just be a matter of time before some fool woman tried to get a legit marriage license with one of those. The times, the times.